Chuck E. Cheese, the chain of family friendly arcade and pizza joints, bills itself as a place where "a kid can be a kid."

But in Oak Lawn, where for years the restaurant on 95th Street has been plagued by fights and disorderly behavior, village officials are questioning whether it's a place where a kid should even visit.

"It's a big problem for the safety of children when you have an establishment that caters to children where this is a constant issue," said Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury, noting that Oak Lawn police received 55 calls for service there through the first eight months of this year. "Would I take children there? I don't know."

The restaurant has had a reputation for attracting a "pretty volatile mix" for decades, although no Oak Lawn official would hazard a guess as to the reason.

Trustee Terry Vorderer, a retired member of the Oak Lawn Police Department who now represents the district where the Chuck E. Cheese outlet is located, said it was a problem even back when he was chief of patrol.

"It seems the type of incidents that take place there, other than the routine thefts of cell phones, things of that nature, are more domestic-related," he said. "They blow up pretty darn quick, and when they get out of control, people get hurt. Police officers get hurt."

Since 2011, Oak Lawn police have made more than two dozen arrests there, mostly for battery and disorderly conduct.

In one 2012 incident, two men fired multiple shots into a car parked in the Chuck E. Cheese lot, according to news reports. A 20-year-old man with alleged gang ties who was sitting inside the car is believed to have been the intended target. He was uninjured, and the gunmen escaped.

Over the years, the village has worked with CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, and Kimco Realty, which owns the shopping center, to enhance safety at that location.

"The management of Chuck E. Cheese has actually been really responsive," Bury said. "Anything we ask of them, they pretty much do."

To date, CEC has installed prominent surveillance cameras and monitors throughout the restaurant; hung "Rules of Conduct" signs in three different areas of the establishment; rearranged the interior setup to increase visibility and sight lines, reduce congestion and increase traffic flow; and added brighter, color-true lighting, a company spokeswoman said.

CEC also pays to have multiple Oak Lawn police officers work a security detail inside the restaurant every Thursday through Sunday, and in 2014, it voluntarily relinquished its liquor license.

In a statement, CEC Entertainment acknowledged that incidents had occurred at their Oak Lawn location, but said it had taken numerous actions to improve the guest experience and was committed to continuing to do so.

"We understand that there have been incidents at local businesses, including ours, and we always work with the local community to ensure a safe and wholesome environment at our restaurants," CEC spokeswoman Christelle Dupont said in a statement.

Even Kimco, which owns the shopping center, has done its part to improve security at the location — enhancing exterior lighting and paying for a police car to sit in the parking lot outside the store, according to Bury.

Yet the problems still persist.

"Everything they've done to date just isn't keeping kids safe" Bury said. "And if kids aren't safe, we have a problem with that."

The most recent violent incident at the restaurant occurred on Aug. 27 when a few family members were involved in a physical altercation.

A male patron head-butted his niece after she spat in the face of his girlfriend, according to a police report. The niece allegedly retaliated by punching him in the face before fleeing the scene, police said.

When an Oak Lawn officer tried to detain the man, he yelled an expletive and shoved the officer, the report states. Police arrested both him and his niece, whom they caught up to at a Walgreens in Evergreen Park, and charged each with battery and disorderly conduct, according to reports.

Immediately upon learning of the fracas, Bury wrote the village trustees a letter alerting them of the incident and asking for their opinions on how to handle it.

"We're taking this very, very seriously. I can't tell you how seriously," she said. "It's really important that people feel good about going to shop in Oak Lawn, and that people feel good about bringing their children to a children's place. We have to keep these kids safe. That's really what it's about."

While revocation of the restaurant's business license is an option, Bury and the village trustees preferred first to take their concerns to the company's executives, who agreed to fly in from Irving, Texas for a meeting two weeks ago.

"I told the president of Chuck E. Cheese (Roger Cardinale), I said, 'Look I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know the answers. I don't know how you solve your problems in that store, but it ain't my problem to solve them for you,'" Vorderer said. "It's my job to represent the community."

Both Vorderer and Bury said the meeting with the company's president and senior vice president was productive, and that executives from CEC Entertainment promised a swift response.

"They are committed to doing whatever it takes to make this location safe for children," Bury said. "They have agreed to, at their expense, hire a security expert to review what's been done to date."

Vorderer said the company had agreed to provide a security report to the board by Tuesday. The company will then present a revised version of the security plan — after village officials have provided feedback and the company has incorporated any suggested tweaks — at the first regular board meeting in October.

From there, the board will decide how to proceed, although it appears likely they'll permit Chuck E. Cheese to implement the plan and see if it has the intended effect of enhancing security at the location before taking any action against the business.

"I'm not going to turn a blind eye to it if there are more issues," Vorderer said, "but I'm giving a responsible corporation and a successful business in Oak Lawn an opportunity to solve our concerns."

It was a sunny day back in August of 1999, a young gay man was wandering through merrionette park aimlessly, depressed and suffering from a bleeding ass. This gay man was broke and tired of selling his ass night after night. If only there were another way for him to make a decent living. Fate would intervene that day as the gay man limped his way along 115th street there it was...a shining beacon and a sign from GOD. A shiny new restaurant called Bourbon Street. He applied for a job and became a waiter. After a year of making good money he finally was able to move out of his mom's basement and stop blowing strangers for cash and swallowing massive loads from black boys of CAL Park. Then one day two strapping young tactical officers sat down in his section and he was thrilled. Cops always tip 25% and he was very attracted to these cops. He served them as usual and gave them the bill. The gay waiter just could not contain his hormones and had an erection. The officer paid the bill and left a 20$ tip on table on a 30$ bill. But as they exited the table the faggot waiter grabbed one of the cops hands and placed it on his erect tiny penis. The officer said "what the fuck dude". The faggot said "sorry sir I just need a steady boyfriend with a good job". I'm not gay the cop said, I'm sorry. I should lock your ass up". The cop walked over to the table and grabbed the $20 bill off the table and said to the fag "no tip for you homo" and him and his partner exited the restaurant.The fag became depressed again and was fired several months later for masturbating in the storage room. He moved back with his mom and lives a solitary gay life and his only joy now comes from leaving retarded comments on his favorite police blog- detective shaved longcock..while he lubes up mini baseball bats and shoves them up his ass

Since OL officials are afraid to hazard a guess publically...the breeders of the kids, are maybe just as smart as the kids - the kids might be smarter. Ask how many of them spent 3 or more years in 3rd grade (or any other grade); ask why the breeders have no impulse control. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Regardless of what they do to enhance security, this is a great training opportunity for rookie officers. They are sure to get a taste on the jungle atmosphere and swap sweat with the apes as they try to subdue them. Every town in the area should send their rookies there to be trained.

1st time I ever saw a no gun sign at the front door of any business was at the chucky cheese in Orland park. Weird....not the fact that we all know it's 90% black people that cause the problems, it's weird because the black people cause 90% of the problems and blame racism and white people. Whites are racist because blacks act like animals and the blacks argument for acting like animals is because whites are racist?

It's time to close that business up. It's not the children, it's the ignorant parents. The cost of the (armed police) security there must be astronomical! I wouldn't want to work there even in uniform and with a pistol taser & squad car...too much like working the projects here in Chicago in the 80s and 90s!

Such a simple idea, pizza and a safe place for children to play.A great place, for civilized children with civilized parents that teach manners to their children. Time to close it up. Fights, vandalism, shootings, and probably other unsavory activities are all part of "black culture". "Black culture" is not safe for children.

And OT, I thought the Police were the problem. Why is Chuck E Cheese hiring cops?Its either "diversity" or cops, you can't have it both ways.Trump 2016

I'm really in it for the big fat black mammies with their big ole black titties a-floppin' and a-flappin' all over the place. A lot of coppers like a little chocolate magic on the side — and I am one of them! Ooh La La Lakeesha!

Close this place , Mayor Fathead, before someones kid or other innocent victim gets killed. Why cant you bunch of drunks get your town quieted down, clean, safe, and orderly like it was a few decades ago ? It has just turned into an extention of Chicago now, under your leadership. Ner-do-Wells everywhere, and all you seem to do successfully is open fast junkfood joints and have fests. Streets and parks strewn with litter, noise, pollution, noisy drunken punks everywhere at night around local bars, taxes and fees too high, and Section 8 types bringing down property values, while you just look out with your rose-colored glasses and chomp on chicken wings.

Close it now, turn into nice Polska Buffet like Bobak's was, with crabby Polska girls with bright red lipstick, hairy legs, and mens underwear on. No music, no nothin but boring polska food. Blacks will stay away and head for barbeque shack.

loved to watch the former slaves in the parking lot there eking and oiking and shoving and shouting and just making a holy show of each other and ripping off clothes and pulling weaves off each others heads and think the south was right with segregation and they knew better then us,,,

Hand out free Chuck E Cheese hot wings & pizza tickets in the nearby 'hood. When the place is packed, roll down the air-tight steel door & window shutters, start blasting heavy metal music over the PA speakers and open the cylinders of Zyklon-B gas. Repeat as needed.

You have to Question the Leadership Abilities of any Politician who allows an establishment that endangers its nearby residents and motorists, just to protect some people who come from elsewhere and cause numerous documented, repeated problems that are all potentially dangerous to the Residents of the Community the Politicians have the responsibility of protecting.

You have to Question the Leadership Abilities of any Politician who allows an establishment that endangers its nearby residents and motorists, just to protect some people who come from elsewhere and cause numerous documented, repeated problems that are all potentially dangerous to the Residents of the Community the Politicians have the responsibility of protecting.

Why should Oak Lawn Taxpayers pay for all the Police, Fire, and Paramedic response to this Dump? Residents are put at risk for this ? Take it elsewhere NOW, before some innocent resident or citizen gets killed.

Oak Lawn is down the drain anyways. Extremely noisy, congested with traffic everywhere, drunks all around the local bars making noise, acting rude, looking for trouble. Junk Food Joints everywhere but fee good quality restaurants at reasonable prices. Anywhere around the Hospital is a total Zoo. Nothin stands out as extraordinary, and it is slippin away with more and more lowlifes movin in every month, with families bailing out and heading for prosperous States with somethin to actually to offer to Middle Class Taxpayers.

The city was afraid that if they closed it, the chimps would scream "rayshists!!" Same with the ownership. They will have to suck it up until someone is killed or stabbed, or until some negro who got kicked out for fighting, or fired, burns it down. The over/under is six months. Takers?

Ain't nothing wrong with that. Just wear rubber (or two) and as long as she has straightened hair and a well-trimmed snatch I'd tap it too. But no relationship unless you want to get ripped off/killed.

Niggers love pork! That would be a misty as kielbasa is the main part of a Maxwell Street...the African and Slavic worlds should never mix. It is like introducing antimatter into our dimension..the fabric of time and space could be destroyed.

Sorry that he cares about his town. If only Mt. Plywood residents cared for their area instead of mindlessly voting Democrat. I know the candidate is a queer Mooslum communist...but he has an Irish surname!!!